News flash: Sepp Kuss and \u201cGC Kuss\u201d are so back.<\/p>\n
Three years after his stunning Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a victory, America\u2019s most popular grand tour rider is flashing his best climbing legs again \u2014 and suddenly he\u2019s back in a fight for the podium.<\/p>\n
The \u201cEagle of Durango\u201d soared to fourth overall on his \u201chome roads\u201d Tuesday in Andorra.<\/p>\n
Yes, Tadej Poga\u010dar is already 3:21 up on everyone and threatening to put a lock on this Vuelta.<\/p>\n
But Kuss is only 23 seconds behind former teammate and four-time winner Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, currently holding the dubious honor of being first among mortals.<\/p>\n
Kuss didn\u2019t come to this Vuelta chasing the GC, but things have quickly changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now, just try and maintain that spot and try and stay with the best guys, and see how it goes from there,\u201d Kuss told Velo<\/em>. \u201cTomorrow will be a really tough day, then the day after, and then for sure the ninth stage. Just a typical Vuelta \u2014 every day or every other day, a big battle.\u201d<\/p>\n After surviving Wednesday\u2019s broiler down the Ebro Valley, Kuss remains fourth overall.<\/p>\n And now that \u201cGC Kuss\u201d is back in the bunch, he\u2019s going to see how long he can stay there.<\/p>\n A grand tour machine, Kuss is racing his third straight grand tour of 2026, something he also did in 2023 \u2014 the year he won the Vuelta.<\/p>\n Andorra offered the first hint yet that the old Kuss is back at this Vuelta.<\/p>\n He went deep in the final week of the Tour de France, twice attacking for victory during the double Alpe d\u2019Huez finales. He didn\u2019t get the stage win, but the signs were there that his best climbing legs were returning.<\/p>\n Of course, there is the Poga\u010dar problem. It\u2019s not a race for first, and everyone knows it.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure it changes the dynamic and it\u2019s a bit strange when you\u2019re not racing to win but just racing against your immediate rivals,\u201d Kuss told Velo<\/em>. \u201cHe was untouchable.\u201d<\/p>\n Kuss isn\u2019t alone. With Poga\u010dar seemingly racing on a different level, everyone from Rogli\u010d and Felix Gall to Oscar Onley and Richard Carapaz is facing the same reality.<\/p>\n Red is not a realistic goal. The fight to be best of the rest and the two places on the podium is wide open.<\/p>\n That suits Visma just fine. Without an outright leader to throw at Poga\u010dar, the team has already won twice with Matthew Brennan and still has Wout van Aert waiting for his opportunities.<\/p>\n Kuss, meanwhile, gets to ride his own race and find out just how far this unexpected GC run can go.<\/p>\n Visma sport director Maarten Wynants told Velo<\/em> the team isn\u2019t putting a ceiling on Kuss.<\/p>\n For now, they\u2019ll let him race his own race and reassess things after Monday\u2019s first rest day.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went with an open mind into it because it was his third grand tour. We know that Sepp can do well racing multiple grand tours in a year, but he has also this limit at a certain moment,\u201d Wynants said. \u201cIt turns out that he is now able to follow the best GC riders. We will see every rest day how far we go.\u201d<\/p>\n The next few days should put everyone in their place.<\/p>\n Stage 6 finishes on a brutally steep first-category climb of 9.4km at 7 percent. Stage 7 ends atop the Cat. 1 Aram\u00f3n Valdelinares, and then Sunday closes the first week on the Cat. 1 Alto de Aitana, with the final 6.6km averaging 7.8 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cA typical Vuelta,\u201d as Kuss put it.<\/p>\n The Colorado climber is already having his best season since winning the Vuelta in 2023.<\/p>\n In May, Kuss won a Giro stage to complete his grand tour set, becoming only the second American male to officially win stages in all three grand tours. At the Tour, he came up empty-handed on Alpe d\u2019Huez, but showed that his best form is back.<\/p>\n Now those legs have carried him to fourth in the early rounds of this Vuelta.<\/p>\n Poga\u010dar might be running away with the race, but there are still two other steps on that final podium in Granada.<\/p>\n Finishing second to the world\u2019s best is still something to race for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/vuelta-a-espana\/sepp-kuss-vuelta-gc-podium-2026\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2291978736.jpg”] Andrew Hood Published August 26, 2026 11:59AM News flash: Sepp Kuss and \u201cGC Kuss\u201d are so back. Three years after his stunning Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a victory, America\u2019s most popular grand tour rider is flashing his best climbing legs again \u2014 and suddenly he\u2019s back in a fight for the podium. The \u201cEagle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2113025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2113025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2113025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2113025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2113025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018GC Kuss\u2019 is back in the frame<\/h2>\n
![\"Sepp](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2291704782-1200x880.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Visma won\u2019t put ceiling on Kuss<\/h2>\n
![\"Sepp](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2291589715.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")